October 2012

Last week marked the third annual Ecodistricts Summit, a
gathering of planners, policy analysts, architects, engineers, academics, and
students interested in learning or sharing more about sustainable community
building. This year’s topics included sustainable neighborhoods, district
development, energy planning and district/community financing, with case
studies from Holland, Switzerland, Australia, and Seattle.

Carol Coletta, Director of ArtPlace – an initiative created
by six major banks, several foundations, and the National Endowment for the
Arts – delivered the keynote address Wednesday night. Based in Chicago,
ArtPlace strives to renew urban neighborhoods and communities through investing
in the arts and culture. Coletta, who previously served as president of CEOs For Cities, opened by affirming, “It is the week of
cities.”

Citing many sources from the New York Times to Business Week, she repeatedly emphasized that there is great new
energy in urbanism. Today 40 percent more young people are living in cities
than in the past thirty years. People are drawn to cities for their
walkability, amenities, jobs, housing, and culture.

Not only do cities offer
great lifestyle opportunities, Coletta reminded the audience, but they also
make financial sense. Urban living saves people money. In New York City, to cite
one of the strongest examples, $19 billion is saved each year from city
residents collectively not driving. “We are in a moment when compact cites make
more sense than ever and the market is saying bring it on,” she added.

Coletta went on to discuss how ArtPlace is accelerating the
urban draw through creative placemaking. When surveyed about what connects them
to their cities, urban residents were less likely to have schools and jobs at
the top of their lists. Instead, social offerings, openness, and aesthetics
were the key attributes. Coletta further suggested that what she called
“distinctiveness” plays a critical role in place making. Citing the example of
a Parisian Boulevard study where classic Paris streets were overtaken by
globalized American shops, she noted, “When a place feels like everywhere it
feels like nowhere.”

For this reason, a major area of ArtPlace’s research is
creating metrics for measuring vibrancy, diversity, and distinctiveness in
cities and clearly demonstrating how the arts play critical roles in promoting
these attributes. These metrics provide the basis for ArtPlace to issue grants
to various arts and cultural organizations looking to renew their
neighborhoods.

In closing, Coletta offered that the principles, metrics,
and attributes behind the work of ArtPlace are very similar to Ecodistricts.
These organizations need to draw from each other’s strengths to broaden their
own guidelines and district thinking.

She also mentioned that Portland is
positioned in a unique place: “If I had to praise Portland on anything it would
be the unusual courage it takes to recognize your distinctiveness and lift it
up and act on it. Not many cities
are willing to do that.”

As the keynote speech and the Ecodistricts Summit as a whole
suggests, district-wide urban and sustainability initiatives are gaining
incredible ground across the country and world-wide. Last week, the AIA
Committee on the Environment hosted a Pecha Kucha night where Vince Martinez of
Architecture 2030 shared information about Seattle’s 2030 District. The
District’s plans include stringent building energy performance targets as well
as district transportation and water consumption energy reduction goals. Other cities including Pittsburg,
Cleveland, and Los Angeles are creating 2030 Districts. Will one of Portland’s
Ecodistricts be next?

In 1959, architect and artist Will K. Martin, of the Eugene
firm Wilmsen & Endicott, won a design competition for the entrance wall to
the new Portland Zoological Gardens. Martin’s design, a 50-foot long mosaic
mural, was the background for a freestanding sculptural “tree of life” and
shallow fountain pool. In the pools were statuettes of turtles that quickly
became a favorite attraction of young visitors to the zoo. Martin’s zoo
entrance mural is similar to what other parks and zoos were erecting in the
late 1950s, according to Kristen Overbeck Laise, Director of Rescue Public
Murals, an organization that seeks to document and bring attention to the
historic and artistic significance of murals in the United States.

The sponsors of the design competition at the City of
Portland hoped that a magnificent Zoo entrance would be a highlight of the 1959
Oregon Centennial celebration. But the development of the entrance was not
without its challenges.

In a September 15, 1958 letter from Portland Zoo
Commissioner Herbert R. Ketell to Loyal C. Lang of the Portland Zoo Commission,
Ketell noted that the project lacked adequate funding. The Zoo sought $115,000,
including $25,000 for an entrance replete with pre-historic monsters created
out of mosaic tile, along with a water fountain as a loan from the Park
Department’s “windfall” money or the general fund. The project goal was to have
the entrance completed in time for the Zoo’s grand opening in June 1959. A lack
of funding remained an issue however, and it was not until one year later, on
September 15, 1959, that the Portland City Council passed an ordinance to hire
Martin.

For a modest sum of $7,000 Martin was to complete the installation of the
mosaic tile mural within 45 days. According to city records, the short project
timeline was so that work would be completed before the first frost. Martin was
known as a tenacious and vocal architect and it may be that he used some of the
same tactics (like speaking directly to City Council) that he later employed
when competing for the design of Pioneer Courthouse Square – another
competition that he ultimately won.

Martin's zoo mural today (photo by Tanya March)

The Martin-designed entrance has been closed off for several
years, and the under-utilized space is currently blocked by chain-link fencing.
The mural will soon be replaced as the zoo embarks on a much-needed expansion
of their educational building. Regrettably, it is not deemed cost effective to move
the mural to another site where future generations can enjoy its beauty. History, apparently, doesn't pencil out.

Thankfully, the zoo is being thoughtful about their expansion plans and they
want to honor Will Martin’s historic contribution. To that end, they are
currently documenting the mural prior to its dismantling. Katie Wisdom
Weinstein, Public Arts Administrator for the Zoo, recently contacted Martin’s
family and also the Architectural Heritage Center in order to help inform the
community about the mural and its removal.

The mural is an object of art and a free standing wall
created by a beloved and controversial local architect who died tragically in
the middle of his career, not long after the creation of his team’s winning
design of Pioneer Courthouse Square.

Val C. Ballestrem is the Education Manager of the
Architectural Heritage Center

Tanya March, Ph.D. is a historical consultant and the
author of historicpreservationclub.blogspot.com

This week from October 23 to 26th, the Portland
Sustainability Institute will host the third EcoDistricts Summit. It is one of
the few annual conference dedicated to district-scale sustainability
initiatives. I recently spoke to Naomi Cole, the EcoDistricts Program Director
of PoSI about the Summit, the EcoDistricts movement and what it has to offer
this year.

Portland Architecture: Tell me about this week’s EcoDistricts Summit and what are
the new and exciting events that are in store?

Cole: The significant difference between this year’s summit and
the last year is that we are much more international in nature this year. We’ve
got delegations coming from China, Vietnam, Sweden, Netherlands, Switzerland
and Japan. We had a decent international turnout last year but each year the
geography has expanded quite a bit. When we started, our first year was pretty
much Portland folks, our close advisors, then we expanded and became more
regional, then national and now international. We have had many people from
different countries reaching out to us and wanting to be a part of the Summit.
So I think the key flavor this year is that we have got representatives working
on EcoDistricts from all over the world.

We are seeing a lot more projects being called
‘EcoDistricts’ and we will be able to hear many of their stories being told
this year. We will be able to understand more about what is working, what’s not
working, lessons learned, how much of it is ‘greenwashing’ versus deep
district-scale sustainability change.

Tell me about the progress on the five pilot EcoDistricts
Projects. What are the lessons learned from them?

The five pilot projects are moving along at a relatively
similar pace – slow and steady. They are all where we wanted them to be at the
end of their three year pilot. So each of the districts has a leadership group;
either a steering committee or a formal board. They’ve all got a Chair, in some
cases paid staff. They have all gone through some kind of assessment to
prioritize projects and they are moving into project development phase.

To give
you a flavor of what some of the projects are- the Lloyd District is doing a
Commercial Retrofit Program, Gateway is doing a project called Re-energize Gateway
which is a much more grass-roots weatherization and solar production program.
Foster Green is starting to develop urban mobile gardens at vacant lots along
Foster Road. South Waterfront is just starting to develop a Smart Grid and
Demand Management strategy. So, they are quite varied and are related to
energy. But each of the districts has its priorities and is starting to develop
its projects.

In terms of lessons learned, one of the overall things we
have learned from the five pilots and other cities is that being really clear
about the program expectations, roles and responsibilities from day one is
essential. To give an example, if the city of San Francisco is going to start
an EcoDistricts program, they have to be clear about what are they going to commit
to their pilot neighborhoods and what are the stakeholders expected to commit
to in return. This is important because we are still figuring that out with the
City of Portland. Now the pilots are independent, they have a clear direction
and leadership they are starting to have a direct relationship with the city.
So our recommendation to other cities is to design the program first and then
pilot it. We were piloting and designing the program at the same time in
Portland instead.

If we can prove that EcoDistricts work well in highly
diverse neighborhoods such as Foster Green and Gateway, then it is really a
translatable model. Each of the EcoDistricts has defined ‘EcoDistricts’
differently for its own context. In Foster Green and Gateway, it is really about
sustainability as a way to improve livability and meet basic needs like lower
utility bills, create local jobs, provide pride and a sense of opportunity in
creating and shaping your own community. We have goals in our EcoDistricts
performance areas around equitable development, around health and well-being to
make sure that whatever projects that come out of the EcoDistricts goals meet
multiple benefits at once.

These are huge, complex projects and we hope that
each project meets as many community benefits as possible. We worked really
hard to be inclusive around engaging people and around shaping priorities. The
kinds of projects coming out of communities such as Gateway will ultimately be
reflective of a different set of interests than communities like Lloyd District
which has a lot of commercial property owners.

What EcoDistricts projects are in the pipeline for PoSI?

In terms of the projects in the pipeline, PoSI is launching
a North American program. We received a grant from the Urban Sustainability
Directors Network (USDN) to design the program and we did a thoughtful research
and design phase for the North American EcoDistricts program. We worked with a
group of 15 cities and advisors to design a North American program with the
idea that PoSI would provide technical assistance similar to what we did in
Portland. We want to help a handful of cities each year to launch an
ecodistrict neighborhood.

Some of the most promising cities and projects that
we are working with are San Francisco and Washington DC. San Francisco has
three neighborhoods they have identified as EcoDistricts. Washington DC has
four and they have got clear staff time allocated to this project. They are
also benefitting from a lot of lessons learned from Portland and our failures.
They are ultimately making smart moves and learning from our mistakes.

This Friday the Cascadia chapter of the US Green Building Council is hosting the The 2012 Build Small | Live Large Housing Summit, gathering leaders in the development, real estate, building and design sector from across the region for an intensive day of inspiration, project case studies and peer-to-peer learning. This one-day housing summit will challenge architects, developers, builders, remodelers, urban designers, policy makers and real estate professionals to craft strategies for the growing small-house market.

Recently one of the summit's scheduled speakers, Jenelle Isaacson of Portland's Living Room Realtors, discussed our changing local housing market.

Portland Architecture: Has the market really come back?

Isaacson: Oh definitely. The market has really heated up. We’ve done
double the business in six months than the year previous. It’s palatable to
sell if they bought in 2007, 2008, or with the benefits out there it’s worth
selling and taking on. Interest rates are at three and a half percent. That’s really
low.

What do you see as the lasting change after the housing
boom and the recession?

I think that real estate for me didn’t go away. There are
always still people needing to move. It just drastically shifted. The biggest
thing I noticed was that people started having a lot more serious discussions
about sustainability. Not so much, ‘Let’s green it up.’ More like, ‘What can we
sustain financially and what makes sense? People were looking for more meaning
inside their living situations. When the market dropped out, for a long time
the dominant conversation was, ‘Will this appreciate? Is it a good investment?’
It was all about the home as an asset.

Jenelle Isaacson (image courtesy Living Room Realtors)

When the market shifted, the discussion
shifted away from that. If it’s not a vehicle for making money, it’s just a
house. Community and lifestyle became even more important in the minds of our
clients. A lot of that was reflected in where people wanted to live: denser
urban neighborhoods. The market fell out for us out past 82nd Avenue, for
example. People wanted to stay in neighborhoods like Alberta, Clinton, and
Alameda. It’s so cool in Portland: people here are their neighborhoods. It’s a reflection of who they
are. It’s not somewhere they’ll be for the short term. And all of a sudden it became
normal habit that they’d want to know if a property has mother-in-law quarters
or an accessory dwelling unit. So if we had a crisis again, the thinking was,
you could move into the small part and generate more rental income, or bring
your parents in.

Do you see accessory dwelling units as a growing trend?

Yes and no. The city waved their system development charges for adus last year, making it easier to
happen. But unfortunately there's no financing available. The only way is you
have the cash or you are able to pull the equity out of your home. Lines of
credit went away. There is a demand for it, but people have no way to buy them.
People aren’t able to do it enough. But I’m hoping somebody will come out with
a loan product to build these adus.
They cost about on average in urban areas about $125,000 to build. In mortgage
terms I think that’s about $675, and current rents on an adu in an urban neighborhood, you’re
probably looking at close to $1200 or $1300 per month in rent. There’s a lot of
incentive to do it. You could make $500 additional a month.

What do you make of the current controversy over several apartment buildings being built without parking in places like the Beaumont neighborhood or on Southeast Division?

In my experience it’s incredibly difficult to sell a project
that doesn’t have parking. People still want a parking space. Nine times out of
ten I’d say that was a deal breaker. It’s tempting to encourage more growth of
developments without cars, but I don’t know if it’s palatable to sell. But many
of these are rentals. Some of those neighborhoods don’t have parking, or a
driveway. If people in houses have to compete with people in dense apartments
for parking spaces, it will probably affect the value of the home. Parking’s
already tough in the neighborhood.

My
friends in San Francisco pay $800 a month to park a car. I don’t think anyone
wants that. That’s what’s hard about urban growth. We want it denser but we
still want to have room to park our Subarus and get in and go to the beach. I think
people move here because it’s not a big city. It has all the amenities. You get
that perfect twist of both. But we need housing. Nobody has been building for
the last few years and people are moving here. There’s a study saying Portland
is the #2 place poepole move to after college after Louisville. As an Oregon
native, I take pride in that.

"Most cherished in this mundane world is a place without traffic," reads a poem by 16th century poet Wen Zhengming inscribed in a rock formation at Portland's Lan Su Chinese Garden. "Truly in the midst of the city there can be mountain and forest."

The quote seems fitting for my visit to the Lan Su Garden on a recent sunny early-autumn afternoon. I'd gone at the invitation of a friend, music and arts writer Brett Campbell, a frequent visitor there, and was reminded how enlivening and soulful an oasis the garden is. But it's somehow easy to forget Lan Su is there, even though it's much more centrally located than, say, the Japanese Garden in the winding depths of Washington Park.

"I go to the garden at least once a month, and often once a week in the summer," Campbell told me. "I love tea and really admire the way the teahouse fits so well in the garden. It makes it a real destination for lunch and socializing, which is why I always bring visitors. sometimes I just sip tea and meditate, staring out at the pond from the teahouse. Sometimes I read, or just stroll the familiar paths, because the garden really does change with each season (there's red period and a yellow period and a green period etc) and evolves each year."

When Campbell and I visited, he also took off his shoes to walk barefoot over the garden's cobblestone pathway.

It was the first time I had been to the Classical Chinese Garden (as it was originally known) in several years, and the sense I had of nature flourishing all around within its 40,000 square feet of walled space was greater than it had been when I visited in the past. The garden, with more than 400 species of plants, mostly species native to China and Asia (but procured in the United States), from orchids and water plants to perennials and bamboo trees has now had a chance to grow into itself.

Occupying a full city block in the Old Town/Chinatown district, the garden was completed in 2000 as a result of Portland's sister-city relationship with Suzhou, China, where these elaborate gardens of water, stone, folliage and poetic symbolism originated.

As Joan Kent Kvitka explains in the Oregon Encyclopedia, classical gardens in China traditionally emply a variety artistic effects with symbolic importance, all in yin-yang harmony. "Water and stone, shadow and light, inside and outside are balanced to manifest the Dao, or Way of Nature," Kvitka writes.

"The sound of water cascading among the piled rocks drowns out the noise of the city; and the fragrant blossoms of jasmine, wintersweet, and osmanthus are intended to awaken the senses throughout the seasons. Serpentine walkways, a zig-zag bridge across the lake, and open pavilions provide visual structures from which visitors can observe or wander through a living landscape painting."

While standing in one of the pavilions looking out at the large pond at Lan Su's center, Campbell told me a story of once seeing a hawk swoop down and snatch up a large koi fish out of the pond. Apparently, the pond had to stay under a two-foot water depth because anything deeper would have triggered a regulation requiring a guard rail all the way around, which would have compromised the design and the delicate setting. But at only two feet, the fish can't get deep enough to avoid such birds of prey. Luckily, the inherently violent state of nature was missing when I visited, and the fish were swaying gently under the lily pads.

In the 12 years since it opened, I'm not sure there has been much evidence that Lan Su has prompted change in the surrounding neighborhood or the streets that it borders: NW Second, Third, Everett and Flanders.

The broader Old Town neighborhood has certainly progressed during that time, with a University of Oregon outpost along the waterfront, numerous restaurants and shops, and the addition of a second MAX line. But the area surrounding Lan Su is, except for cars on either side coming on or off the Steel Bridge, seems to lack energy.

Outside Lan Su (photos by Brian Libby)

Maybe that's because as wonderful a local treasure as the garden is, in following the traditions of traditional Chinese place-making it is inwardly focused. For all the hundreds of plants and the tranquil watery setting inside, on the sidewalk you're looking at a big blank stone wall.

That's not to say every building has to be made of glass or must follow in lock step in facing the street; to have such diversity of places makes for a richer city. Like the Wen Zhengming poem says, we need to have places in urban areas that act as alternatives to the high-traffic spots: quiet, green places in an otherwise noisy concrete city.

Particularly in Portland, surrounded in every direction by natural beauty, the notion of bringing a little bit of mountain and forest here, not just physically but (at the risk of sounding hokey) spiritually speaking.

"It's probably my favorite place in Portland," Campbell added, "and really does give you that feeling of calm otherwhereness that makes living in the city (I live downtown) so pleasurable. Its like that intertwine philosophy - that nature should be a part of the city, not apart from it. I always emerge kind of buzzing from the tea and the sort of mental cleansing that happens every time I'm there."

As Portland notes the 50th anniversary of the Columbus Day Storm this month, it’s worth noting that the record high winds on October 12, 1962, indirectly led to public purchase of perhaps the city’s best-known and best-loved residences: the Pittock Mansion.

Unlike the high winds that damaged the Pittock and thousands of other buildings that day, public acquisition took nearly two more years. But storm damage that led to talk about demolition of the mansion also led to public determination and fund-raising efforts to save it under municipal ownership in 1964. The numbers seem unreal today — a purchase price of $225,000, with $75,000 of that total raised in a public fund drive.

Today, the mansion managers expect to spend more than four times that amount to repair damage caused by the much slower attrition of water infiltration on the mansions exterior terraces. Plans call for removing and replacing damaged balusters, removing the tile floors, adding a new waterproof membrane, replacing the tile floors and then reinstalling new or repaired stone balusters.

“Anything we don’t have to replace we will reuse,” architect Peter Meijer told the Portland Landmarks Commission this month. He said stone from a quarry in Tenino, Washington, the source of the original baluster material, is no longer available. Meijer said a comparable match has been found at a quarry in Nova Scotia. Some of the balusters to be replaced are made of concrete, a substitute used in earlier repairs.

Meijer said the work is schedule to occur over 12 to 16 weeks next summer. The funding is being developed through a partnership between the Parks Bureau and the non-profit Pittock Mansion Society, which took over management of the building in 2007 as part of a Parks Bureau budget-cutting plan. A successful restoration project should prove that the partnership is an acceptable means of preserving the much-loved mansion, which attracts some 80,000 visitors per year.

In some ways, the building’s history is as quirky as its view is wonderful from high in Portland’s northwest hills. It was designed and built between 1909 and 1914 for Henry and Georgiana Pittock, early pioneers who accumulated extensive wealth from numerous business dealings, including Pittock’s conversion of the Weekly Oregonian, which he bought in 1860, into a daily newspaper.

The architect of the 22-room mansion was Edward T. Foulkes, a Monmouth native whose impressive career was spent mostly in the San Francisco Bay area and Fresno, Calif. Pittock wanted his mansion to showcase Pacific Northwest materials and craftsmanship, and Foulkes delivered. The architect was still in the early stages of his career at the time, after studying at Stanford, MIT and the famed Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris. He also spent two years travelling much of the world in 1903-04.

The mansion project also showed the power of influential businessmen of the era. Portland historian Kimbark E. MacColl wrote about how Pittock and the City Water Board of the era reached a private agreement to extend a city water line to the mansion even though it was located a half mile beyond city boundaries. The quiet deal was cancelled, however, when a City Council member went public with it.

The Pittocks were elderly — 80 and 68, respectively — when they moved into their new home in 1914. Both were deceased within five years. By the time of the Columbus Day storm, a grandson had been trying to sell the building, without success.

An unexpected act of nature and the desire of Portlanders to share ostentatious opulence — albeit on a part-time basis — saved a monument and a fascinating look at life of the rich and famous of an earlier era.

I hope you didn't think tonight, tomorrow or this weekend was the time to stay home, watching football in your sweats and grazing on fatty food. (Oops, that was supposed to be my interior monologue.) Instead, how about listening this evening to one of the city's best architects describe his vision? Or seeing homes by that architect and several more on Saturday?

The monthlong Architecture + Design Festival, which started in earnest last week, already had plenty to offer architects and design enthusiasts looking for ideas, inspiration and conversation. But this week also has brought Design Week Portland, which brings a broader array of designers not just of buildings but of clothing, advertising, objects, and more. It begs the question: why couldn't they have got together and made for one comprehensive fest? After all, many of the A+D Fest's events are actually a stitching together of other oganizations' already-happening events under the A+D banner. Design Week has a wider focus than A+D, but Portland is the Capitol of Collaboration. Do we really need two design festivals happening at the same time?

That said, one can always pick and choose, and too many compelling events is a favorable dilemma to have. At the Design Fest tonight, for example, there is a talk called "Portland Writers on the Designs That Shaped a City" at the Ziba Auditorium (810 NW Marshall, free). The panel includes Chris Higgins, a regular contributor to Mental Floss magazine; writer Matthew Stadler; technology/science writer Karla Starr; Ziba editor/researcher Carl Alviani, and Silicon Florist blogger Rick Turoczy. This group should have a lot of insightful things to say, and a different perspective.

Also tonight, the Design Fest will feature a talk by Jeff Kovel of Skylab Architecture called "The Hidden Narrative" (The Cleaners at Ace Hotel, 1022 SW Stark, $28). Kovel got his start designing a home for rock musician Lenny Kravitz for Architropolis in 1996, and since founding Skylab in 1999 has put himself in a very rarified air amongst Portland architects, able to conjure a kind of sleek and sexy modern style, eye-popping without ever seeming ostentatious, that is at the same time rooted in sustainability. Be it restaurants and bars like Doug Fir and the Departure Lounge, temporary installations for clients like Nike, ambitious efforts like the unbuilt Weave Building, or dazzling houses as pop-cultural phenomenons (like the one in Portland's West Hills used in the Twilight movies), Skylab has more inherent style than most of the other firms in town combined.

This Saturday, there are two more Architecture + Design Festival events. First at 10AM at is a lecture by local architectural historian William Hawkins on the Greek Revival style in the Oregon Territory from 1839-59 (701 SE Grand, $10-18). Though many of our East Coast friends seem to think Oregon was an unpaved, unplugged outpost as recently as the 1980s or so, by the mid-19th century there was a plethora of Greek Revival architecture here.

Irvington Residence (rendering courtesy DAO Architecture)

But Saturday's marquee A+D Fest event is Design Matters: A Tour of Exceptional Portland Homes ($28). I've already detailed some of the homes on the tour in last week's post about the A+D fest, including Skylab's modular HOMB project. But there are a few exceptional homes I didn't mention. One is the Irvington Residence by DAO Architecture.

A two-story house that's just 13 feet wide and has a total of only 950 square feet, the Irvington Residence nevertheless accomodates a living room, double-height dining room, kitchen, two bedrooms, bathroom, powder room, a number of built-in storage areas, and ground floor patio and upper floor deck. The house sits on the site of a former garage adjacent to an existing apartment quadraplex, so it's also an ideal example of the density we can add to our already existing neighborhoods.

Unfortunately too much squabbling has occured in recent months about how infill projects often add residents to a neighborhood without adding more parking, which is a sad, suburban-minded mentality to have in America's most progressively designed and livability-oriented city. DAO's project reminds us of how the right infill projects enhance these neighborhoods.

Twigg House (rendering courtesy Darin Dougherty)

The Design Matters tour also includes work by numerous other talented Portland architects and firms, including Paul McKean, DECA Architecture, and Darin Dougherty (of the now-defunct SEED Architecture Studio). McKean and Dougherty's work was part of the very influential 11xDesign tour a few years ago, and they are some of the city's premier young architects. DECA has been building an impressive portfolio for more than a decade, and their CYRK Building on SE Clinton Street is the tour's sole mixed-use exampe, and a very fine one at that.

Packer House (image courtesy William C. Tripp Architect)

Speaking of Darin Dougherty and SEED from the Design Matters tour, one of their previous houses, the SIPS House, is included in an exceptional documentary being screened this Saturday as part of Design Week. Coast Modern (Ziba, 810 NW Marshall) by Mike Bernard and Kevin Froom is an hourlong documentary that traces post-World War II modernism from Los Angeles to Vancouver.

The film expertly weaves architects and architecture from the mid-20th century and today, architects in Califonia and those in Oregon and Washington. It features not only SEED but the wonderful Packer House by Portland architect William Tripp and of course the iconic circa-1937 Watzek House by the great John Yeon.

“I think it starts really with spending time with clients to learn about
what’s important to them," Tripp says, "not just the pragmatics of a study here and a
room that’s of a certain size, but what do they care about? What are their
hopes and dreams? You try and get a sense of what these people are all
about. One of the characteristics of modernism is that it has a level of
abstraction to it that allows for a kind of timeless quality, but it also
allows the designer more flexibility. You’re not bound by the rules of
symmetry or axial alignment or a particualrl language of arhitecture. One
of the things we look to do is to articulate a deeper connection to the
landscape…The house becomes a kind of intstrument for locating the known
universe.”

Watzek House (photo by Brian Libby)

Local architect and writer/professor John Cava also provides some well-spoken insight on the Watzek House and the socio-historic context it arrived in during the 1930s. “The Pacific Northwest was more insular [than California]," he explains. "It wasn’t in the thick of it….these were
much more provincial places and were cautious about just receiving the
full box that came in the mail: ‘Here’s modernism. We’ll just take it as it
is? I don’t want to do that.’ Yeon was integrating vernacular traditions
of the region, mostly agrarian, into modern buildings."

"The Watzek was for a wealthy businessperson-socialite who would normally have a Greek
mansion or a French mansion, something special," Cava continues. "Yeon’s friends used
to rib him about what they called the ‘Chicken Shack.’ They said, ‘You spent all this money on
this place and it looks like a barn.' But it’s a very mild mannered house.
You come to it and it is almost a kind of nothing place. You could drive
by it very easily. But you go through and there are things about this
hosue that are extraordinary. One is the integration with the landscape.
Another is this weaving of modern space and what you might call old
fashioned or traditional space…You go through this courtyard space, and it’s as wonderful as anything Neutra or anybody did. You open this door
through this walled compound, and your whole body just kind of goes, 'Whoa!'"

The next installment in our continuing series features Portland architect Philip Sydnor of Integrate Architecture & Planning. Since moving to Portland in 2001, Sydnor has worked with local firms Richard Brown Architect and Clark Kjos Architects, working on notable local hospitals like Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis, Wallowa Hospital in Enterprise, and Willamette Falls Hospital in Oregon City. Since founding Integrate six years ago, Sydnor's work has included residencessuch as Gracehaus (featured in the AIA 2010 Portland Homes Tour) and a uniquely designed farm house and landscape in Tualatin.

Portland Architecture: When did you first become interested in architecture as a possible career?

Philip Sydnor: Since I can remember. Other things came up here and there that I considered; the second option was probably a veterinarian and there are some days when I regret not doing that because I have a major love for animals. In kindergarten I was making buildings out of cardboard when we were supposed to be making other things. I remember that somewhere along the way, someone said that I should be an architect and it seemed like a great idea to me. I was always obsessed with things like Legos and blocks.

Reflecting back, where I grew up had a huge influence on me and my appreciation for not just modern architecture, but really everything as far as architecture is concerned. My parents moved us into a really old, bizarre, rural community in Southern Maryland called Lower Marlboro, which is on the Patuxent River. I grew up in a 200-year-old home surrounded by colonial homes. Being around nothing but old homes in the middle of farmland where the only other structures were tobacco barns has had a profound influence on my career and life.

Where did you study architecture and how would you rate the experience?

I went to Tulane University School of Architecture and got a five-year master’s degree in 2001. It was an amazing experience. They really emphasized Le Corbusier at Tulane, and I was interested in Frank Lloyd Wright at the time. Since then I have been to Corbu’s buildings, which are now among my favorite. It’s funny and a product of the rebellious side of me that just wanted to be different from the other students. Tulane gave me an incredible foundation as far as looking at a plan and thinking about schematics and how I practice today. I also learned the Venturi approach from my professors, where you sit down, sketch a plan and put it aside, then come up with another completely different plan and put it aside and keep doing that until you can’t think of any more. That is basically how I work: I sit down with every single one of my projects and try to beat the idea before it; if I can’t, then I know I have come up with the best. My clients love it, and this process was completely based on my experience at Tulane. Everyone involved in the process feels as though we looked at the design from as many angles as possible. This method also detaches me emotionally from my work; each project is a study for that client.

For me, growing up in an isolated area in Maryland, we traveled some when I was a kid, but not internationally, so going to an international city and experiencing that culture was really great; I can’t think of a better place for a student to go to architecture school; there is a sense of community there along with a melting pot of cultures and localized ideals that was incredible to tap into and experience. From a student’s standpoint, going out in the city and experiencing sites that the professors would pick out for us was really great. The school itself is much more theoretically and historically based. And in some ways at the time, I was immature and was much more interested in getting a project going, so the theoretical/historical component for me was something I struggled with in school. Since then I have matured and taken in these components on all of my projects.

I started my career in New Orleans: I got a great job with a good firm in town called Peter Trapolin Architects and, because of some of my connections, probably could have moved on to the best firm in town, Eskew+Dumez+Ripple. But I quickly realized that because I wasn’t a local that was always going to be a problem. The professional world in New Orleans is very insular – outsiders aren’t welcomed the way they are here in Portland. I left New Orleans in 2001.

There are some specific projects that stand out in my mind. The Gracehaus was my first solo project. I was only 26 years old and moonlighting while I was at Clark Kjos Architects when I came up with the design; it’s a real one-of-a-kind home with a lot of original ideas in it, which is hard to do. The attitude for this project was to just go for it! For that first one, when you are moonlighting, you’re not thinking about your fee. This is your first shot; there is something pure about that. It’s hard to find that purity on projects when you are running a business and thinking about the fee and supporting your family and making sure the client is happy. It’s tough to maintain that all of the way through the project. On any given project, you always have glimpses of freedom and opportunity to do something original and carry it all of the way through but it’s a rare thing. We were able to do that on this project. We also had a great builder, Dick Baty, who is a really good guy, and he saw the vision and helped make it happen. The team also plays an important part in a great project.

Another favorite project I worked on is the Robb-Nardi Farm House, which was a big five-acre lot with no trees on it. It was an empty canvas, and I was able to do all of it: the site topography and house design. They wanted a farm house but couldn’t initially explain exactly what that meant to them; they were skeptical about me at first because of my more modern work, but the builder, Marc Even, backed me up. I knew exactly what a farm house was because that is what I grew up around. We nailed it and they are beyond happy with it.

Another project that I have worked on is the Costanzo floating home, which is not built. I was told, ‘The sky is the limit: whatever you can think of.' I started thinking about a nautilus shell and making the building wrap and turn around the central core stair tower. It’s a mostly steel building, and we hit around 99 structural details that I drew and developed with my engineer to work with the architectural.

On all of my projects I draw the structural and work extremely close with my engineers; all of my projects are pretty structurally intense. It’s just something I love. When you get into the roof as an architectural element (I am pretty anti-flat roof), it takes on its challenges especially when you are doing exposed-vaulted systems. I love the structural side and anything that is going to be challenging from the structural standpoint. I’ve wondered if that’s a good thing while thinking maybe I should scale back on the structural for cost and sustainability. With this climate, and this rain, you should have sloped roofs; it’s a part of the architecture that is important up here, especially in residential.

Back in 2008 I worked with William Hawkins III. He is the historic preservationist guru in town and author of Classic Houses of Portland, Oregon: 1850-1950. He and I collaborated on a couple of projects: the Alameda project and a five story, high-end residential-commercial building that did not get developed. He taught me how to be comfortable with the wall, little rooms, and doors, and breaking up a residential plan. He taught me some really cool old-school tricks about roofs and other things. I think a lot of young designers are into the modern and the contemporary, and I know a lot of that is about aesthetics, but also the old stuff can be intimidating. To get in with someone like Bill and do it first-hand and understand what goes into historic design, that is going to be with me the rest of my career.

I still continue to work with Dick Baty, who built the Gracehaus. He is constantly telling me, ‘You can do better; you need to think harder about this detail.’ He got an architecture degree from the University of Oregon, and he has been great to work with. He pushes me hard to do even better. His attention to detail and what he has taught me about materials has been amazing.

Lewis and Van Vleet: Basically the reason why I am good on the structural side is because of them; they are amazing guys.

Clark Kjos Architects, for completeness of documentation, and client satisfaction. I currently set up my drawings based on Clark Kjos standards. It’s more about the client than about the design and making sure the client is happy.

What part of the job do you like best, and as an architect what do you think you most excel at?

I was looking through the previous Architect’s Questionnaires, and Jeff Stern mentioned a ‘generalist’ approach. I first learned this term from Thom Mayne of Morphosis and I have believed in that since I was an intern. It has always been my goal to master all of it; from schematic onward, which you have to do if you are practicing on your own. You have to be good at all of it, and I can appreciate any part of the job.

The part of the project that I am probably the most happy on and the part that makes my brain go back and forth is schematics -- sitting down to come up with the initial concepts and developing the core initial idea. It almost makes me feel like a kid, with freedom, forgetting everything around you; it’s powerful stuff for me.

What are some Portland buildings (either new or historic) that you most admire?

I’ve always admired The US Federal Courthouse building.

Portland International Airport I think is phenomenal; I enjoy leaving from it and arriving to it. Everybody I know that visits me also loves it; I think it is a great initial greeting to Portland and probably the most complex building in town as far as how it is used.

The Water Pollution Control Laboratory building in St. Johns by Miller Hull with SERA Architects is fantastic.

There is a funny little building on the east side of 28th; it’s a green stucco building with vines growing on it, and that building has always caught my eye as an older building with some interesting geometry on it.

Robert Oshatz has some great homes - a cool floating home and one on the lake in Lake Oswego; he has done some cool stuff.

Diamond Ranch High School (photo by Philip Sydnor)

What is your favorite building outside of Portland and besides any you’ve worked on?

Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp is at the top of my list. I have been in it by myself for an hour and that was pretty breathtaking.

Diamond Ranch High School by Morphosis is incredible when you think about the budget that they had for this project and everything they put into this building for a high school.

David Salmela homes influence my work more than any other residential architect. He practices out of Minnesota.

E. Fay Jones has had some influence in my work.

The Pantheon in Rome is incredible.

Is there a local architect or firm you think is unheralded or deserves more credit?

I think anybody who is in this for their own personal reputation should maybe go become an artist. We do buildings, and there are a lot of people involved in them. I also think that the community really does pay attention to its architects; I think you guys do a good job in celebrating the local architects. I don’t think of myself as an artist; I think there is a huge difference between artist and architecture.

What would you like to see change about Portland’s built environment in the long term?

I would like to see them continue the emphasis on sustainability. Public transportation is something that is pretty amazing here, and I’d like to see a better mesh between transportation and buildings. I’d love to see a stronger physical connection between the buildings and the transit – a ground level MAX or streetcar stop within a public building, maybe.

I’d like to see more sloped/arched/pitched roofs. The roof of the Hatfield Federal Courthouse building that you can see from all parts of the city is great.

How would you rate the performance of local government like the Portland Development Commission, or the development and planning bureaus?

I’ve had a lot of experience; I do the permitting on every single one of my jobs, so I am the point of contact for the city on all my work and not just in Portland, but in all surrounding jurisdictions.

Prior to 2009, I felt like Portland was the best. The economy has gotten bad and they have done huge layoffs there, so I get it: it’s tough times at the city. I think that it’s unfortunate that some of the junior staff was laid off and they kept some of the more tenured people. Some of those junior guys, structural examiners in particular, were really good and they could do a review over the counter on a challenging project and sign off right there and then. Structural now? Good luck with that. There is one structural examiner left at the city that can do that, and he is awesome. I used to just about guarantee clients I could get the permit the same day as submitted and I can’t guarantee that anymore, which has been disappointing. There are still really good people there. You want to be able to give your clients a pretty good, solid confirmation on what they are going to need to do on their property and unfortunately right now (especially with commercial property) there are just too many unknowns resulting from potential worst-case requirements which the city may or may not throw at a project.

PDC and the DOS programs are great; the PDC has great energy and a great grants program. My wife is involved with Venture Portland and the Kenton Business Association and has worked with PDC on grants and other projects. It has been fantastic - I’ve heard and seen people get some funding for projects, and some of our potential projects may also get some funding. I am impressed with their energy and commitment.

Would you rather live in a South Waterfront condo, a craftsman bungalow in Laurelhurst, a warehouse loft in the North Mississippi district or a mid-century ranch in the West Hills?

Any one of those will work; whichever is going to leave the most money for a piece of property outside of the city for a weekend/summer home. That is the goal for us as a family - to have a weekend retreat away from everything.

Who is a famous architect you’d like to see design a building in Portland?

Miller Hull is an appropriate fit for the city; they did the Vancouver Library recently, they also did the Water Pollution Control Laboratory with SERA Architects.

Other than that, I think it’s too small of a city for a big name. I think they may be out of place here, unfortunately. I’d love for a big-name architect to design here. Don’t get me wrong, Jean Nouvel or Morphosis would be great. I think some of the smaller high design firms would be a good fit, like Canadian firms Patkau Architects, or Shim – Sutcliffe Architects.

Which would you rather be responsible for: an ugly LEED platinum building or a beautiful modernist energy hog?

I think that it is our responsibility as architects to make stuff look good - sustainability and a healthy building are a part of the criteria. Energy hogs are on the way out. Form, function, and aesthetic are all part of the equation and I can’t sacrifice any one of those.

That is constantly changing. My wife and I are collectors, and there is no one thing – we collect pottery, art, rugs, cool coffee mugs. I think music could also fall into that category. If I get obsessed on anything it would be music - some piece of classical music whether it is Philip Glass or Debussy. Other than that, I would say it could be furniture or something related to manufacturing, it’s across the board and what fascinates me is unending.

What are your all-time favorite movies?

"Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai", "The Big Lebowski", "The Black Stallion", and "Never Cry Wolf"

What does October mean to you? Maybe it's about football season kicking into high gear. Maybe you're keen to stay outdoors before the rains arrive. Maybe you're caught up in the presidential race, or busy hanging Halloween decorations with your kids. But autumn is also when the arts kick into high gear, and for architects and design enthusiasts, each October brings the annual Architecture + Design Festival.

Presented by Portland's American Institute of Architects chapter but in partnership with a host of local design and arts organizations, A+D 2012 kicked off a few days ago with an opening night party at the chapter's Center For Architecture (newly minted as an independent nonprofit). Festivities continue tonight with a First Thursday celebration, also at the CFA (403 NW 11th Avenue), featuring an installation by Jordan Tull called "Ecto-Paraprism," which Tull describes as not as something from Ghostbusters but "a flexible crystalline facade that feeds off the existing core of AIA PDX. The installation explores transparency, reflection and ownership in a dynamic relationship between host architecture and parasitic intervention. Ecto-Paraprism redefines and dominates an existing structural facade to provide a temporary and alternative visual orientation for AIA PDX."

There are also two lectures this week, including a free one tonight at Portland State University's Shattuck Hall Annex by New York architect Dan Wood of WORKac called "Architects create places, not spaces,” as part of the Department of Architecture's 2012-13 lecture series. (Many already-existing events by other local entities are additionally placed under the A+D Fest banner.) Saturday brings "Electrifying Times: Streetcars and the Building of Portland" at the Architectural Heritage Center (701 SE Grand, $10-13).

Next week starts with a panel discussion on Monday, October 8 at the Center For Architecture (5:30PM, $10-15), part of the International Interior Design Association local chapter's monthly discussion forums. It promises that "compelling members of the Portland design community will be gathered to discuss the integral role collaboration plays in the emerging multi-disciplinary design industry." There's also a Tuesday film screening at 6PM for Detroit Wild City (CFA, 403 NW 11th, free) by French documentarian Florent Tillon, hailed as "a poetic portrait of the dystopian ‘Motor City’ where grass is growing in parking lots and building after building is crumbling apart." What can America's Pompeii tell us here in the Next American City?

Saturday, October 13 brings a trio of events. First, beginning at 10AM, there's "Design Matters: A Tour of Exceptional Portland Homes" ($40), featuring seven houses by a compelling variety of Portland firms. There is Skylab's HOMB, for example, a new prefab housing model that has been constructed in Portland for the first time this fall. There are also two renovations, one of a 1950s ranch house by Paul McKean (a past winner of the top local AIA design award) and another a rehab of the circa-1958 "Home of Tomorrow" by Donald Blair and William Fletcher, an AIA winner from back in 1960. Also included is the striking wood-festooned Graham Towers duplex, one of the last projects by PATH Architecture before lead designer Corey Martin left for THA Architecture.

Skylab's HOMB concept (rendering courtesy Skylab & Method Homes)

If you're not looking to drive all over town for the homes tour, October 13th also brings a lecture by architect-historian William Hawkins, also at 10AM called "Greek Revival Style in the Oregon Territory,1839-1859" ($10-18) at the Architectural Heritage Center (701 SE Grand). There's also the ASLA Design Awards, honoring the best in local landscape arcthitecture (6PM, Tiffany Center ballroom, 1410 SW Morrison, $65-85).

October 16 brings two more events, both at 6PM. A lecture at the University of Oregon (70 NW Couch, free) called "Material Computation" will be delivered by Achim Menges, architect and professor at the Institute for Computational Design at the University of Stuttgart. A pioneer in construction innovation, Menges will discuss how material characteristics can drive architectural form using computational techniques, which promotes an understanding of form, material and structure not as separate elements, but rather as complex interrelations. At the same time, there's a screening of the film How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? (CFA, 403 NW 11th, free). Directors Norberto Lopez Amado & Carlos Carcas profile the British starchitect Norman Foster with a blend of curiosity and reverence. It seems unfortunate that both events take place at the same time. If they were staggered, one could make an evening of it.

On October 18, the AIA's Committee on the Environment hosts the latest Pecha Kucha night (CFA, 403 NW 11th, free), in which participants show up to 20 slides each in no more than 20 second increments, with the topic of what sustainability means to design professionals, community members, educators, artists, and members of the community (Center For Architecture, free). The Bosco-Milligan Foundation's 17th annual "Riches of a City" auction is scheduled for Saturday, October 20 (Melody Ballroom, 615 Southeast Alder, $75-100).

The highlight of any Architecture + Design Fest is the annual AIA Design Awards, which this year are scheduled for Friday, October 26 at The Plant (935 SE Alder, $50). This year the event is actually called "DesignmiX" and features a series of sculptural objects (or "follies") on display created by designers and architects. The "DesignmiX" is preceded by An Evening With the Jury on Thursday, October 25 (CFA, 403 NW 11th, $5), in which the Design Awards jurors (from New York, Los Angeles and Baton Rouge) discuss their impressions of Portland.

There are even more events happening during the A+D Fest than I've listed here. Check out the event website for more details - and then go out and get inspired.

In
a ceremony last week at the Multnomah Athletic Club, Portland Mayor Sam Adams
challenged a gathering of BOMA Oregon’s leading commercial building
owners and managers (the organization represents over 30 million square feet of
commercial real estate) to participate in the 2012 Kilowatt Crackdown, a
two-year energy benchmarking competition for Portland metro-area commercial
buildings.

As
part of the City of Portland and Multnomah County’s ambitious goal to achieve
40 percent reduction in carbon emissions by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050, Adams
encouraged the group to join the the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance's BetterBricks (a sponsor of this site), the Portland Development Commission, the Energy Trust of Oregon and Clark County's Clark Public Utilities to lead
the Portland-metro area in cutting energy use and costs.

“Portland’s
large commercial buildings consume considerable amounts of energy, and many
could use energy-efficiency upgrades,” said Adams. “We’ve assembled a
great partnership to create a valuable opportunity for Portland’s building
owners to save energy, save money, and improve their buildings.”

After
Adams' invitation, three large office-building managers pledged their
participation: Unico Properties (owner and manager of U.S. Bancorp Tower,
among many others), Langley Investment Properties, and the 200 Market
Building.

The
Kilowatt Crackdown is a public/private partnership to benchmark energy efficiency
in office buildings throughout the Portland region ensures voluntary
disclosure of energy information from local office building participants.
It is the successor to a competition first launched by BOMA Oregon in 2006. The new
partnership and two-year competition expects to double participation to
about 150 while expanding geographic reach throughout the metro
area. Participating buildings will benchmark energy performance through
the Energy Star Portfolio Manager Tool and seek to improve their
performance over time.

"Prospective
tenants demand efficient, environmentally-friendly buildings and are
willing to pay for it," said Scott Andrews, chair of the Portland
Development Commission. Andrews is also persident of commercial realtor Melvin
Mark. "Benchmarking for improved performance keeps us competitive in
the marketplace, and will help us deliver on our economic development
goals to foster the next wave of innovation in sustainable building."

By
working collaboratively to establish innovative green building practices, the
City of Portland has agreed not to mandate Energy Star disclosure. Disclosure
will remain voluntary.

To
give context to the figure of 150 office buildings in the Portland metro area (including Clark County, Washington) targeted by the Kilowatt Crackdown, there are over 10,000 office buildings that
are over 5,000 square feet, and 17,800 total (according to figures supplied by the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance). That means out of the total
office buildings in the area that over 5,000 square feet, the Kilowatt
Crackdown if it succeeds in signing up 150 participants would still only have
benchmarking data for about 1.5 percent of local offices. But the competition
has specifically targeted buildings over 40,000 square feet, of which there are
less than 1,500 in the area. So rather than 1.5 percent of local offices, it’s
arguably more like 10 percent.

How
does this compare with other cities seeking to lead the way on sustainability?
New York City recently began non-voluntary benchmarking effort that has
acquired energy data from over 2,000 large commercial properties. But NYC is
about 14 times bigger than Portland, so the Crackdown participant numbers are,
when you scale it, not nearly as dwarfed by NYC's mandatory program as it might
initially seem. But New York is also mandating benchmark data for municipal and
residential buildings, and data currently exists for over 3,000 buildings.

Should
Portland be mandating that its large office buildings provide energy data?
Absolutely. But it's also a valid step to make it a voluntary process in the
beginning, and it makes tremendous sense to partner with the industry before
diving in to legally obligating them to participate. (The only troubling fact
may be that PDC's chairman is also president of a commercial real estate
company, Melvin Mark. It creates the potential for conflict of interest.)

“BOMA Oregon has worked with numerous legislators to successfully defeat mandatory reporting requirements on the city and state level. And, together, we believe the building industry can manage itself, without government imposing any additional regulations,” said Susan Steward, Executive Director of BOMA Oregon, by email. “Building owners benchmark for a number of reasons: first, it’s the right thing to do. Second, it saves money which will be passed down to building tenants. And, third, it’s a win-win for the City of Portland and for the commercial real estate industry.”

So, it's a win-win if everybody does it, but if you make everybody do it, it's wrong? Hmm.

That said, Portland's business community has long perpetuated the idea that the city
and its government are not receptive to local business, so enacting voluntary
benchmarking measures first is a way to show that the city is as adept with the
carrot as it is with the stick. If the Kilowatt Crackdown were the final word
on office-building performance benchmarking, it might seem to be affecting a
small segment of the market. But instead, it's the beginning of something
larger. Ultimately all office buildings, or at least all the large ones, will
have to disclose their energy performance, and possibly that of other resources
too. Creating real market transformation ahead of regulation is a worthwhile
move that will more than pay for itself.